Patients should no longer be shunted from one NHS doctor to another, Jeremy Hunt will say today.

The Health Secretary will call for patients to have a “whole stay doctor” who will be responsible for their care from the moment they enter hospital to when they are discharged.

And he will order hospitals to stop moving patients, especially elderly ones, from ward to ward.

Mr Hunt says too many patients are treated like commodities rather than “people” and are often referred from one specialist to another without being told what is going on.

He will cite the experience of a patient who had tests with one doctor, a consultation with another before being sent for more tests with yet another doctor.

This was not cause by a “lack of compassion” by any doctor but a “culture” of targets, he will say in a speech at St Thomas’ hospital in London.

“They were caused by poor continuity of care, by a system where no one took responsibility for sorting out the problem or looking after the person rather than just a part of the body where things had gone wrong.

“And time and time again we see this happen when dealing with patients with complex needs or multiple long-term conditions,” he will say.

The Health Secretary will point to figures showing that every time a patient is moved from one ward to another their stay in hospital increases by a day.

As a result of the Francis report into the Mid Staffs scandal, the NHS is already required to put the name of the doctor and lead nurse on the board above each patient’s bed. Mr Hunt says he now wants each patient to be given a “whole stay doctor” to guide them through their stay in hospital.

“This is not just about structures. It is also about culture. So often when considering the appalling suffering at Stafford Hospital, things come back to a culture - as Robert Francis described - “focused on doing the system’s business" - not that of the patients.

“And getting the right culture means reasserting a simple truth: every patient is a person.

“A person with a name. A person with a family. Not just a body harbouring a pathology; not a diagnostic puzzle; not a four-hour target or an 18-week problem; not a cost pressure and most certainly not a bed blocker,” he will say.

Professor Norman Williams, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “The progressive fragmentation of care that we have seen in the NHS is not only confusing and damaging for patients but also undermines the professionalism of medical teams.

“I welcome the Secretary of State’s determination to bring back a more streamlined and compassionate approach to care. The task force I am currently chairing on the implementation of the European Working Time Directive is looking at continuity of care and the need for it to be given a much greater focus within the NHS.

“We have to end the situation where patients are shuttled from one member of staff to another with no one individual taking responsibility for ensuring they receive the right treatment at the right time and in the right place.

"Having one named consultant in charge across a hospital stay will help bring about an important cultural change and reassure patients that they are not lost in the system, with no-one overseeing the totality of their care.”

Mr Hunt's comments come as a report today found some hospitals are failing to monitor accurately how long patients are waiting for treatment.

Research by the National Audit Office (NAO) discovered trusts in England were often “mis-recording” data, with some saying either patients waited less time than they did for treatment, or longer.

It said mis-recording of data was identified at The North West London, Barnet and Chase Farm and Colchester hospital trusts.

“The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust identified that it had failed to record properly the waiting times of 2,700 (60%) of its elective (pre-arranged) inpatients, including 12 who had waited more than 52 weeks for treatment.

“Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust identified that it had failed to monitor more than 2,000 patients on the waiting list, 651 of which had waited between 18 and 51 weeks for treatment,” the report said.

“More than half of these were not supported by documented evidence or were incorrectly recorded,” it said.

In 281 cases, waiting times had been correctly recorded and were supported by documented evidence.

But in 202 cases, waiting times were not supported by enough evidence to say whether they had been correctly recorded.

And in a further 167 cases, there was “evidence of at least one error, leading to under and over-recording of waiting time”.

The number of people each month waiting longer than 18 weeks without treatment fell to 138,000 by the end of October 2012 (from 234,000 in October 2011) but by the end of October 2013 had increased to 169,000.